According to "Place Names of Washington" (Hitchman, 1985, Washington State Historical Society), Dallesport is a "town on north bank of Columbia River, opposite The Dalles, Oregon, southwest Klickitat County. Once it was a town of considerable importance, and the county seat of Klickitat County. In 1891, it boomed under the hand of Rev. Orson D. Taylor, a Baptist missionary. In 1895, he was arrested for gross misrepresentation, but was released on a technicality.

Dallesport is located in T2N, R13E, Sec.33, Klickitat County.

Today's Dallesport has had several names including "Rockland Flats", "Rockland", "Grand Dalles", and "North Dalles", before becoming "Dallesport" in 1937.

TOWN WILL CHANGE ITS NAME DEC. 1
Northdalles Residents Petition to Have District Termed Dallesport, Report Says.

Word was received by The Sentinel the fore part of the week stating that Northdalles will be known as Dallesport after December 1.

The official word was sent The Sentinel by Mrs. Hessie R. Mann, Northdalles postmistress, who said: “Please be advised that the name of the post office here at Northdalles will be changed to Dallesport effective December 1.”

The short letter aroused considerable interest and a Sentinel staff member investigated further to find the how and why of the change. It was learned that a development which is now under way along the flats across the Columbia from The Dalles would point toward the time when an orderly laid out city would be thriving there.

The man who is caring for the development recently met with those interested and suggested a change in name. He went further and suggested Dallesport to replace the more widely known Northdalles.

The idea seemed to catch on and the suggestion was released in a quiet fashion. It was Mrs. Mann, the postmistress, who receives the actual credit for the change, The Sentinel learned. She circulated the petition for a change. A percentage, thought to be 60, of the patrons of the post office must acquiesce if the name is to be changed. The names were obtained with little effort a few weeks ago and the petition forwarded to the federal authorities.

The answer back was favorable and Mrs. Mann sent out her official announcements this week. The area was originally known as Grand Dalles, later as Northdalles, and after December 1 will appear on the official records as Dallesport.

All four Columbia River treaty tribes enjoy fishing rights along the Columbia from the Bonneville to McNary dams. This 147-mile stretch of the river is called Zone 6.
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) operates and maintains 31 fishing sites (2015, Note: the website map only shows 30 sites) in Zone 6. These sites were set aside by Congress to provide fishing locations to Indian fishers whose traditional fishing grounds were inundated behind dams.

"For fisheries management purposes, the 292-mile stretch of the Columbia River that creates the border between Washington and Oregon is divided into six zones. Zones 1-5 are between the mouth of the river and Bonneville Dam, a distance of 145 miles. Oregon and Washington manage the commercial fisheries that occur in these zones. Zone 6 is an exclusive treaty Indian commercial fishing area. This exclusion is for commercial fishing only. Non-commercial sports fishers may still fish in this stretch of the river."
[Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission website, 2016]

All Lewis and Clark quotations from Gary Moulton editions of the Lewis and Clark Journals, University of Nebraska Press, all attempts have been made to type the quotations exactly as in the Moulton editions, however typing errors introduced by this web author cannot be ruled out; location interpretation from variety of sources, including this website author.